When I set out shopping for tools this spring, what are your fave's... remember, I'm in an apartment and have a 20'x10' plot, so I don't have storage for anything huge. Thanks :^O

I don't know that it is my favorite, but I have a light weight digging tool with a pointed blade on one side and a fork on the other. (I'm sure there is a name for this tool but I don't know what it is. It's my digging thing.) It does two jobs, and has a telescoping handle so that it fits in a short space. It works great in flower beds and any light soil. I have two favorite tools--my little pruners, because I love snipping and pruning my bushes--makes me feel I am accomplishing something, and my big ole- pick axe, which I use for digging up tree roots, etc. I know I am accomplishing something when I get a huge root ball out of the ground with that. Last summer I dug out an old privet hedge row with it (and a little help from the DS).

No question, my EZ-Digger.
I use it for almost everything, and it come with a long or short handle.
http://www.veseys.com/images/products/large/859.jpg

Invest in a good sturdy hand shovel.
Those cheap things just aren't worth it.
You need something that isn't going to bend out of shape when digging a particularly hard area especially around any rocks.
The one I use has been around here since before I was a little girl! Long, long ago!!

Two actually. One I made. Two sturdy kitchen forks (one on top of the other) duct taped together and then taped to a make-shift handle with electrical tape. (Easier on the hands.) The tines are bent down so they form an upside-down "L" and splayed a bit apart. It's about 10" long, and I can shove this thing in my pocket, whip it out when needed and "fork" that errant weed out of the ground. The tines hook it and then with a twist (like twisting spaghetti on a fork) the weed slides out. Roots and all.

The other is my Precious. :^O My half-moon edger. Since all my flower beds are edged naturally, it's indispensible and addictive. I've been known to....eh..."accidentally" extend the borders of my beds because I was so lost in the Zen-like rhythm of edging. Yeah...that's it! It was an "accident". :8}

I love my kneeler seat. Turn it one way, you have something to sit on. Turn it the other way, you have something to sit on (or if you're like me, you sit way down low ). It folds up for easy storage. The "legs" or handles or whatever are green metal; the seat part is soft & yellow. It was a birthday or Christmas present a few years ago--not sure where they got it. You could probably find it someplace like Home Depot or Target, or mabye at your favorite garden center. --J--

For digging and delving.... I like the 4 pronged fork rake I got at K-mart that was a Martha Stewart product. It has held up well. The prongs are bent down like a cultivator, but it has a long handle. You can dig with it like a hoe. You can rake with it gently too. So you can dig a hole, but you can also loosen weeds with it. We use it to pull the Ground Ivy out of the Oregano too.

What kind of soil are you dealing with?

My garden fork spade.

My machete - great at relieving that tension
And it makes short work of chopping compost.

A 5 gallon plastic spackle bucket. I can carry water in it, scoop wood chip mulch out of the cart with it, throw weeds in it, use it as a harvest basket, carry my tools in it, turn it upside down and sit on it while weeding, use it as an impromtu table to set a glass of wine on, stand on it to reach the top of the pole beans, carry transplants in it, store winter compost in it, use it as a makeshift sawhorse, and on and on.

Then, if you don't mind drilling holes in it, it can serve as drip irrigation, a container for mint and other plants that like to spread around the garden, a home for worms, and on and on.

The cost: Free.

Wayne

That sounds like my kind of tool, Wayne.

My favorite is my hoe, but if I only had 1 bed the size of your's, it would be my trowel. DH's favorite is the shovel.